Miscellaneous as of 04.02.12

I'm making good progress with my secret project and have probably done about a two thirds of the first square so far.  The fabric I am stitching it on is quite difficult to work with so it's taking me much longer than a normal project would but it's nice to stitch on something different for a change.

One of the goals I have set myself for the year is to complete the 24 Christmas ornaments on plastic canvas from the November 2011 issue of Cross Stitcher Magazine.  I am hoping to turn them into some form of advent calendar so I need to stitch at least 2 a month to reach my goal.  Up to now I have completed 3.  I am substituting the french knots with beads and some of the backstitching with metallic threads with the hope this will add a little sparkle to the ornaments.  So having completed 3 of 24 ornaments I have completed 12.5% of this project.

I've also started stitching the plastic canvas nativity which I hope to have finished for Christmas.  There are 12 pieces in total so at 1 piece a month it seems like quite an achievable goal.  Also they are quite basic designs and have large blocks of colour so I am hoping when the light gets better I may be able to stitch on them in the car going to and from work.  I've started with the biggest part of the set which is the background and here's my progress so far.  If you want to see the finished design you can find it here.

I was thrilled to see on Jill Rensel's blog that she has framed a Living with Charm piece.  It just looks stunning.  It is my goal one day to have one of my pieces framed by Jill.  Here's the link if you want to look.

I'm extremely excited to have signed up to stitch my first Chatelaine - I've chosen to stitch the Anniversay Fairy Tale Castle.  The first part is released at the beginning of April so I have until then to save up my pennies and then decide whether I am going to stitch it in the recommended silks or use the DMC conversion.  I'm thinking I will have to go with the DMC conversion but we'll see.

I've also splurged again in the HAED sale and bought the four Randall Spangler story keeps recently released.  I will also get the fifth one when it comes out as I want to stitch them all on one piece of fabric.  I'm thinking a hand dyed piece so that the fabric acts like matting in between the pictures but I'm not sure yet what colour fabric I will stitch on.